President signs cybercrime bill into law: official

KABUL (Pajhwok): President Ashraf Ghani has signed the bill on prevention of electronics crimes into law, the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology said on Tuesday.

Najib Nangyal, a spokesman for the IT ministry, told Pajhwok Afghan News the 27-article law had become part of the panel code after its approval by the president.

Meanwhile, acting Telecom and IT minister Eng Syed Ahmad Shah Sadat said before there was no law to punish people for crimes they commit on the internet.

“Now when the law is approved, anyone who commits character assassination or misuses the social media, there are punishment codes and the accused can be tried.” The law recommends fines and imprisonment up to 20 years as punishment, he said

Former deputy IT minister Aimal Marjan on his Facebook wrote that all departments of the government were expected to take effective measures for full implementation of the law.

However, he said police should be equipped with information about cyber crimes and judges and attorneys who were expert in the field should be involved the law’s implementation.

He said the law, if enforced, would help people get rid of negative activities on the social media and would promote the culture of positive use of technology.

Political affairs expert and social activist Javed Ghafoor said the law would help prevent political and ethnic differences among the Afghans. He said the law would help preserve the Afghan unity.

He said everyone was able to publish content without any evidence but now such things would be monitored. He said the real cause of current differences were the materials published on social media without evidence in support.